This is a great day for England rugby league. It cements Gareth Widdop's position at No. 6.

Good luck to the lad, he’s put enough shifts in at the top, nice for him to slow down as he heads towards retirement.

I think he’ll do ok, he’s got a great rugby brain, & has got to be in the top three all-time players for Leeds, he’ll be a big miss.

He'd already retired from Internationals you utter bell

Depends what you class as the best I suppose, I wouldn't have him in the top 10 players in SL, maybe not the top 20.

Fair enough... I'd be genuinely interested to know whom the 20 better players are

Didn't see this coming. Little bit of me is disappointed that he'll end his RL career by gifting some positive headlines to the RFU, but he doesn't have many games of RL left in him, so I can hardly begrudge him the chance to increase his pension pot in a less physically demanding game.

The big question now is who will fill the very significant gap in leadership which he leaves behind at Leeds. He's been instrumental in their success over the last decade, and I don't see an obvious replacement.

It's going to be a very tough transition for Kevin. Union's rules are so much more complex. It will take him quite some time before he can referee a Union game.

More player drain to Union.

Can I be first to suggest an OAP cap to keep players like this in the game.

I too would be interested in those other 20 players.


If I could retrospectively pick a player from SL I wish we'd had at Hull over the past 10-15 years, it'd be Sinfield.

I don't think any other player in the SL era has had such a positive effect on their clubs success as he has.

No great loss.

A one trick pony at best!

Probably should have gone to union sooner with his "talent", far more suitable to that inferior game with all it's inane kicking.

I won't put the list on here (did it at work today when bored), as it will derail thus thread but I easily got 15 players who I think are better individual players than Sinfield, so maybe 20 was too many. As I've said I believe he is maybe the most important player to a team since SL started, but had his limitations to be as good an individual player as some others.

There is no denying Sinfields contribution to Leeds Rhinos.
A great servant of the club and a fantastic club captain.
There are better players in the game but, the guy has made Leeds tick for many, many years now and without him in their team
it is unlikely that their level of success would have happened, a great leader.

Hasn't really had the same impact at international level but he will be a massive loss for Leeds Rhino's.

Cant really see the benefit of changing codes so late in his career, especially to ply his trade in the second tier of RU.
Surely he would want to test himself against the best that Union has to offer ??